VIEWPOINT

Photos: Tony McNicol Who Are You Calling “Otaku”? By Tony McNicol Author Tony McNicol

didn’t take much research before I real- ized that is often far from the truth. The first article I wrote was about an otaku test designed to select 100 elite otaku from all over Japan. When I interviewed one of the top scorers over a beer, I was bemused to find him an impeccably pre- sented young salaryman from an emi- nently respectable Japanese corporation. In fact, one of the weirdest otaku-type hobbies I’ve ever covered involved not 20-something men, but middle-aged Toy figures on sale at Mandarake hobby store Resin dolls made by Kyoto-based Volks Inc. are women. I met them when I wrote a in Nakano, Tokyo popular with young women, and a few men too. story on a kind of cuddly interactive doll originally targeted at lonely 20-some- Elite Otaku where. Suddenly, being an otaku is cool. thing office ladies. To the maker’s sur- The stereotypical otaku was a geek bar- prise it had become a hit with middle- My wife tells me I’m an otaku, and I’m ricaded into his (definitely his, not her) aged and older women. I went to several beginning to wonder if she might be bedroom, maybe playing on a game con- packed events for “owners” at the manu- right. If you are not familiar with the sole, probably surrounded by shelves of facturer’s HQ: birthday parties, excur- word, online encyclopedia Wikipedia manga, and almost certainly logged onto sions, even a kindergarten entrance day. defines it as: “a Japanese term used to some Internet discussion board. But it The dolls evidently make fine grandchil- refer to people with obsessive hobbies, most commonly manga or anime.” It’s a Photos: Tony McNicol topic I’ve been working on a lot recently, since apart from anything, it is big busi- ness. The otaku “economy” of comics, DVDs, figures, games, etc. is said to be valued in the trillions of yen (tens of bil- lions of dollars). The hardcore hobbyists themselves number in the hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions. And maybe they include me? Not that it would be so surprising. You can probably find a bit of the otaku in most journalists: after all, we probably need it to get excited about chasing after all those fiddly facts and figures, immersing ourselves in research. Nor is being an otaku much to be ashamed of these days. Once, the name was a term of abuse directed at the geekiest kind of obsessive. Today it has mutated into a catch-all for any kind of keen hobbyist: not just manga and anime otaku, but jazz otaku, knitting otaku or tofu otaku. The word has even gained global currency to refer Attending a birthday party for Primo Puel, and Many owners hand-make clothes for their to fans of Japanese pop culture every- an interactive toy made by Bandai Volks dolls.

36 JAPAN SPOTLIGHT • September / October 2007 VIEWPOINT

Photos: Tony McNicol dren substitutes in low-birthrate Japan. My most recent brush with otaku cul- ture was again a kind of doll; this time slender 30 cm-high jointed figures made by a Kyoto toy manufacturer. I first came across the dolls in the Akihabara electronics and otaku district, so when I attended a convention for the dolls at Tokyo Big Site, I was expecting a small gathering of earnest male otaku. On the day, though, there were hundreds of doll owners and stalls. Many attendees were fashionably dressed young women who brought their dolls in velvet-lined violin cases.

Sailor Moon vs. Sushi

But here’s the question: does this obsession with obsessive hobbyists really make me an otaku too? My wife points to my collection of old cameras (for work, I say), and my extensive collection Otaku are prepared to pay hundreds of dollars Hundreds of people attended a doll convention of manga, which I excuse as Japanese for some plastic figures. at Tokyo Big Site earlier this year. study – and conveniently forget the otaku-like determination needed to learn Japan’s fiendishly difficult writing system. In any case, maybe it’s natural that a little of the otaku mentality rubs off on long-term Japan residents like me? I’ve often wondered if the otaku character might not extend to more areas of Japanese culture than people usually admit. There is a word in Japanese, kodawari, that might be relevant here; it refers to a painstaking (some might say obsessive) attention to detail. Take an article I just wrote on sushi. I learned that trainee sushi chefs spend the first few years of their 10-year appren- ticeship just cooking rice. That way trainee itamae can get a feel for how dif- ferent kinds of water affect the rice, and how the rice grains vary depending on the season. Now, if that’s not otaku obsession, I don’t know what is! Volks dolls can be customized to change eye color, hair style and even body parts.

Tony McNicol is a Tokyo-based freelance journalist and photographer. More of his work can be seen at www.tonymcnicol.com

JAPAN SPOTLIGHT • September / October 2007 37